This
run of comics is as near and dear to my heart as it gets. I started
buying this title with issue 17 in September of 1984 (cover date
December, 1984). I thought that the cover was so badass that I had to
pick up this strangely titled comic off of the spinner rack at 7-11
and leaf through it. I saw Wolverine and that incredible John Byrne
artwork and I was in. Yes, even at age 11 I was nit-picky about
artwork and the like. But more on that particular issue later.

I
was able to procure back issues of the title for cheap in 1985, and
so I had read all of these by late 1985. Issues 9 and 10 are a
Sasquatch fan's dream. I loved the Sasquatch versus the Super Skrull
battle royale as a kid, and even more so as an adult. I like how
dysfunctional and fractured the team is. In fact, the team doesn't
even appear as a team between issues 1 and 12. Scene shifts and
back-up stories ensure that the characters and subplots all get their
turn, but Byrne really seemed to throw everything up in the air and
juggle the characters around like balls. The most amazing thing about
this is that he didn't drop a single one. Everything was mapped out
perfectly without coming off as overly labored or stale. The life and
energy of old comics was still apparent within the confines of the
modern story arc structure.

Issue
11 is where the seeds of the earlier issues start to bear fruit. This
is one of the all-time greatest set-ups, in my opinion. The battle
between Alpha Flight and Omega Flight in issue 12 is fantastic. The
scene where Northstar smashed Wild Child into the wall has long been
a favorite of mine.

Speaking
of Northstar, it should be noted that he was the first gay superhero.
This may sound like a big “so what” to younger readers, but back
in the Ronald Reagan, ultra-conservative America of the mid-80s, this
was huge. Byrne had to be sneaky about it since then Editor-In-Chief
Jim Shooter wouldn't allow him to come out and say that Northstar was
gay. Mind you, this was the era of the Comics Code Authority and
newsstand distribution, and any flack could be catastrophic to a
comics publisher. They didn't court controversy at this time, they
avoided it.

There
were enough hints dropped that I figured out Northstar was gay at age
12. There wasn't an over-hyped press release or anything, it was
merely presented as an organic character development. I took it
matter-of-fact-like at the time and shrugged it off. It didn't bother
me then, and it doesn't bother me now. I think that when creators
make it an overt attempt at getting a headline then they make
it an issue...and then defend it by saying that it's not. None
of which does anything to help gay people with acceptance, which is
what these schlocks all claim to be doing.

Issues
14-16's Marrina/Sub-Mariner/Puck/The Master of the World arc is
great, great stuff, but it was issue 17 where I came in. Little did I
realize that much of the issue was a re-cut reprint of Uncanny
X-Men No. 109. I didn't know and I didn't care. All that I knew
was that the battle between Wolverine and Guardian (then known as
Weapon Alpha) was badass. I read that issue dozens of times, and I
mean that literally. Dozens. My family was poor and we didn't have
cable, so I would read every comic book that I had dozens of times. I
can still recite that issue word for word.

Issues
18 and 19 feature the coming of the Talisman, in a story where the
team travels back 100 years into the past to do battle with one of
the seven Great Beasts of the North. Sinister things have been
happening to Snowbird, a child of the Gods sent to do battle with the
Beasts. Trouble is brewing, and while I didn't catch it at the time,
I can now see all of the hints dropped at what was going to happen in
issue 23.

I
loved these comics as a kid, and I love them as an adult. I got
totally different things out of them as an adult, which is to be
expected I suppose. I latched onto the more accessible superhero
aspect of the title as a kid, and while I enjoyed the
characterization of the team members then, I really enjoyed it
now.

It's
nice when something that you loved so much as a child still holds up
in every way as an adult. Alpha Flight was ahead of it's time,
and yet very much of it's time. Fans of so-called “sophisticated”
modern comic books owe it to themselves to check this series out.

Junk
Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The
OCD zone- Alpha Flight should have been given the Marvel
Masterworks treatment; deluxe hardcovers, sewn binding, the whole
bit.

Linework
and Color restoration rating: 4.25 out of 5. Everything looks
fine except for Puck's face being shaded incorrectly in issue 17 and
some linework dropouts and mediocre color line blends in issue 19.
I'm not sure if the film for issue 19 is in bad shape or if the
colorist did a “spray paint/ airbrush” willy-nilly coloring job
and obliterated some lines in a few places. If you had never seen the
original issues you might not notice it. I have these comics burned
into my brain and can detect the slightest problem with restoration.
I have provided several examples below.

Original comic book. I never noticed how crappy the original printing methods were until I compared my originals with this trade paperback.

The original color palette is faithfully maintained.

Original from issue 17.

Incorrect coloring on Puck's face. This type of highlighting was present on the original for issue 18. The spot on Puck's lapel is simply a printing error. Does YOUR copy have this?

My original issue 19 side-by-side with the trade paperback. Note how much linework is obliterated on this page. This page is the worst-case example, but much of issue 19 looks subpar in my opinion.

Paper
rating: 5 out of 5. This book uses the same beautiful dull matte
finish coated stock paper that the softcover Masterworks use. I love
it.